Coastal and marine impact assessment for the development of an oil spill contingency plan: the case study of the east coast of Sicily

This project is one of the results of the multi-year collaboration in coastal and marine sustainable management, planning and policy between the General Directorate for Nature and Sea Protection of the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea and the CITERA Research Centre (Centro Interdisciplinare Territorio, Edilizia, Restauro, Ambiente) of the Sapienza University of Rome. The main objective of the project was to analyze the parameters involved in preparedness, prevention and response actions required by the Italian Ministry for the setting up of an Oil Spill Contingency Plan. Due to its critical anthropic impacts and its huge environmental heritage in terms of biodiversity richness and coastal geomorphological variety, the Eastern Sicily coastline, bounded by the geographic vertices of Cape Peloro and Cape Passero, has been chosen as the study area. Moreover this area is characterized by significant economic activities such as fishing and tourist industries. One of the major aims of the study was to rank coastal areas on the basis of their sensitivity to an unforeseen oil spill. Physical, geomorphological, biological and environmental attributes have been gathered using remote sensing techniques and field works, and they have been subsequently elaborated for the valuation of oil spill environmental sensitivity indices (ESI). In addition to ESI values, the elaborated maps contain other important information like landscaping and environmental constraints, human-use resources, archaeological and historical sites, and marine benthic biocenosis. In order to achieve the tasks and draw up the maps, the whole data set has been reported in a Geographical Information System (GIS) database. The obtained results include operational maps representing useful tools for local stakeholders and practical guidelines for the elaboration of a regional oil spill contingency plan.